“We gotta keep an eye on the battle that we face, a war on workers, and you see it everywhere in the tea party,” he told an enthusiastic crowd of union supporters. “And, there’s only one way to win that war, the one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know, what, they got a war, they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner, it’s going to be the workers up in Michigan and America. We’re going to win that war.”

Hoffa, Jr., whose father still hasn’t been found after police suspected that he was murdered decades ago in connection with his union activities, was opening up for Obama’s speech in Detroit, which is expected to preview “jobs plan” that he will present in a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry and UAW president Bob King also joined Obama in Detroit. It’s unclear if Obama, Henry, King or Trumka will denounce the vitriolic rhetoric against conservatives that Hoffa Jr. touted on stage while opening up for and representing the president.

In his speech, Obama — who was not present when Hoffa delivered his incendiary speech — did not denounce the labor leader or call for the “civility” that he has promoted in other public settings.